Gunlet here. How does the FAL rank as an assault rifle? I'm American, can I own one?

>How does the FAL rank as an assault rifle
>How does it compare to other, modern rifles
Technically battle rifle but that has been covered.
It's good but outdated. The accuracy is ok due to lockup n' shit, there isn't a good way to mount optics so plan on getting good at the irons, mags for inch pattern ones are a pain in the ass to find at decent prices these days.
On the plus side they are rugged. It feels like the kind of gun I could keep mostly working using motor oil and a shoelace.
>I'm American, can I own one
Yes, you could get a DSA if you want a cheap one or fuck around on the for sale section of FALfiles. Expect to pay between $1,000-2,000 depending on what exact kind of FAL you want.

Anything past this I would encourage you to do enough research to get to the point you can ask more specific questions about the rifles or to determine which type you want.
If you plan on this being your only rifle and with you being new to guns in general you may want to consider something more practical and modern, but they still shoot bullets.

The original concept of the assault rifle was to allow soldiers to carry a lot of ammo while assaulting an enemy position. Hence the name. The cartridges are smaller and weaker than the standard battle rifle ammo. Way back in WWI the US developed a device that would replace the bolt on a M1903 and turn it into a semi auto firing pistol cartridges. It was one of the first assault weapons in the modern sense.

I am building a fal and it has cost me about 1.3k in tools and parts. If you are just getting into shooting I would buy a psa ar or 10/22 to build good habits before jumping to .308.

DSA sells FALs if you have money
dsarms.com/p-14237-dsa-sa58-21-medium-contour-barrel-fixed-stock-rifle.aspx
dsarms.com/p-17100-dsa-sa58-fal-21-israeli-light-barrel-rifle-officer-grade-hebrew-war-hammer.aspx

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That is a pretty bad choice for a carry gun, especially for someone who doesn't know anything about guns.

isn't .308/7.62x51 technically intermediate?
and we just don't call it that because it can match 30-06 ballistics?

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Case length/charge/ballistic properties. 7.62x39 is an intermediate cartridge. x51 is full power.

design is a bit dated, difficult to get really good accuracy out of it due to shit-ass trigger and poor repeatability with the bolt-design.
Get a SCAR17 if you've got the scratch.
t. thinking of selling my FAL to get a SCAR17

>difficult to get really good accuracy out of it due to shit-ass trigger and poor repeatability with the bolt-design.
i still hold that this is mostly a meme generated by years of varying results from different frankengun builds

It's a cold war battle rifle. They're on the whole 4 moa stock. Obviously if you tinker and take some creative liberties you can work on it but that's the standard.

FALs tend to be a special snowflake thing not really suited for some first-timer to pick up. There are cheaper models out there such as DSA, but there are supposedly problems with them. OP, if you're considering buying a rifle buy something easy to shoot and cheap to shoot so you can practice and pick up the right habits.

You have weird priorities and aren't asking the right questions
I recommend lurking for a couple months before spending any money

It isn't an assault rifle, because it does not meet the criteria.
>Capable of fully automatic or burst fire.
>Uses detachable box magazine.
>Fires intermediate rifle caliber.

A FAL ticks the second box and can tick the first, but not the last as 7.62 NATO isn't an intermediate caliber. It is full-power, which is good in that it has a greater effective range, greater barrier penetration and more "power" to use the term loosely. It is also bad in that the ammo weighs and recoils substantially more than 5.56mm (as an example of an intermediate cartridge).

The FAL is categorized as a "battle rifle", alongside the FN SCAR-H, AR-10, M14, H&K G3, Beretta BM-59 and several others.
>I'm American, can I own one?
If you don't mind it not being full-auto (no major loss, since battle rifles tend to be uncontrollable in full auto anyway) then absolutely. DSA sells them.
>How does it compare to other, modern rifles?
It's not as accurate as an FN SCAR or good AR-10 (IE not a cheap one), it is also not as forgiving with poor ammo as a G3 (also available as a PTR-91). It does have very good controls and ergonomics though, and it definitely looks sexy as all get out.

Personally I dig the M14 design a bit more in terms of comfiness (available as a Springfiel M1A), but that's my preference. Your preference may vary.

If you're going to compare it to an AR-15 or some other 5.56 sporter (like a Mini-14 or something) it is more expensive and heavy, but again also more powerful.
You can easily buy a DSA FAL in TX.

FALs are great for LARPing, that's half the reason to buy one. I don't recommend starting on a .308 though as they do have a lot of kick and it's a pretty big up-front investment. Especially if you can get a much softer-shooting AR-15 for $500 nowadays. Often even less. The ammo is much cheaper too.

Also I don't recommend CCing a .22LR, get at least a .380 ACP, .38 special or a 9mm.
No, it's definitely full power.

You have that backwards. 7.62 NATO or .308 winchester was developed to get the same ballistics as M2 Ball .30-06 (WW2 era military spec) from a shorter case.

Ultimately labels like "full power" and "intermediate cartridge" are somewhat arbitrary, but most .308 loads shoot a ~150gr at around 2800 fps, which places it in the same category of other rifle cartridges that are commonly considered "full power".